We are on the brink of disaster : Ukraine PM

FE Team | Published: March 03, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

KIEV, Mar 2 (AFP): Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk warned Sunday his crisis-hit country was on the "brink of disaster", accusing Russia of declaring war in a bleak appeal to the international community.
"This is the red alert, this is not a threat, this is actually a declaration of war to my country," he told reporters in English, a day after Russia's parliament approved the deployment of troops to Ukraine.
"If President Putin wants to be the president who started a war between two neighbouring and friendly countries, between Ukraine and Russia, he has reached his target within a few inches. We are on the brink of the disaster."
US leader Barack Obama has branded Russia's parliament vote a "violation of Ukrainian sovereignty" and told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a phone call that Moscow's reported deployment of troops outside bases that it leases from Ukraine in the Crimea peninsula had broken international law.
Yatsenyuk on Sunday appealed to the international community.
"We believe that our Western partners and the entire global community will support the territorial integrity and unity of Ukraine and will do everything they can in order to stop the military conflict provoked by the Russian Federation," he said.
 Meanwhile: Armed pro-Russia men who had besieged Crimea's local parliament mysteriously vanished Sunday but were still standing guard outside the regional government, as the capital of Ukraine's restive Black Sea peninsula remained calm but tense.
Simferopol has been plunged in a confusing situation for several days after armed men accused by Kiev of being backed by Moscow seized control of several buildings, drawing warnings by Ukrainian leaders of a Russian "armed invasion".
The warnings were given credence when Russia's parliament on Saturday approved the deployment of troops on Ukrainian territory, triggering a blunt response from US President Barack Obama.
On Sunday, masked men still stood guard in front the regional government building in Simferopol, capital of the Russian-speaking peninsula where many oppose the new pro-West government put in place in Kiev following the dramatic ouster of Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovych.
A dozen Kalashnikov-wielding men, who bore no specific insignia, patrolled alongside some 30 "civilian" militia.
"The situation is complicated, there could be provocations, be careful," said one civilian, a member of a makeshift pro-Russia self-defence group invested with a mission of "maintaining public order".
Roads leading into the centre of the city remained blocked off and the Russian flag still flew from the roof of parliament, while armed men left taking two machine guns with them.
The armed men have won support from some parts of the population in Crimea-which was handed over to Ukraine in 1954 by then Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev-who want the peninsula to rejoin Russia.
"Crimea is Russia!" one old lady cried in front of a statue of Soviet founder Lenin on the square next to parliament, which had until Saturday evening been closed off to the public due to the presence of the armed men.
"Lenin, Stalin, death to fascism!" an elderly man wearing a traditional Russian fur hat and holding a red banner suddenly shouted, referring to the pro-West authorities in Kiev who have often been called "fascists" by people in the south.
Rumours had been circulating in Simferopol that some wanted to topple the Lenin statue, as happened in many other parts of the country during the three-month anti-Yanukovych street protests that culminated in the president's ouster on February 22.
But those on the square were unlikely to let that happen. "Don't touch our chief!" read a sign stuck to the base of the statue, next to a drawing of a hammer and sickle, the symbols of a now defunct Soviet Union.